1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus that irradiates an interior of a living body with ultrasound in a radial manner, receives and scans an echo of the ultrasound, obtains ultrasound image data from the scanning, and outputs and displays an ultrasound image of the interior of the living body based on the obtained ultrasound image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus is widely used as a medical diagnosis apparatus that allows for a real-time observation of an interior of a living body. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus performs a sector scan by irradiating the interior of the living body with ultrasound and by receiving an ultrasound echo from a living tissue of the living body to generate and output an ultrasound image of the interior of the living body. On using the ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus, an operator recalls known anatomic positional relations of respective organs and tissues inside the living body and keeps the same in mind. While observing the ultrasound image, the operator estimates an anatomic position of a currently observed region inside the living body based on the above knowledge and makes medical diagnosis on the living body. For a support of such diagnosis, one conventionally proposed ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus outputs and displays a guide image to help the operator to track down the anatomic position of a region inside the living body whose ultrasound image the operator currently observes.
For example, the above mentioned conventional ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe which is arranged outside a subject and irradiates an interior of the subject, i.e., the living body, with ultrasound from outside the subject, and an anatomical chart database in which anatomic illustrative images are stored. The conventional ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus detects position and orientation of an ultrasonic transducer provided in the ultrasonic probe, selects an illustrative image, which matches with anatomic position and orientation extracted from the detected position and orientation, from the anatomical chart database, and outputs and displays the selected illustrative image. Further, the operator adjusts a contact position and a contact orientation of the ultrasonic probe before starting the diagnosis so that a predetermined section (reference plane) of the living body coincides with a scanning plane of the ultrasonic probe. Thus, the conventional ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus can automatically select an illustrative image from the anatomical chart database according to the position and the orientation of the ultrasonic transducer (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-263101 (KOKAI)).
One manner of matching the reference plane and the scanning plane is: firstly, the ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus displays a bone structure chart which is formulated based on information of a constitution of a subject; then, an operator optionally sets the reference plane on the bone structure chart, and adjusts the contact position and the contact orientation of the ultrasonic probe so that the reference plane coincides with the scanning plane. Another manner of matching is: firstly, the ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus displays a bone structure chart corresponding to a current contact state of the ultrasonic probe, and an operator sets coordinates of the reference plane which coincides with the scanning plane of the ultrasonic probe on the bone structure chart. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus matches the scanning plane of the ultrasonic probe and the reference plane on the bone structure chart in the above described manners, thereby matching a coordinate system of the ultrasonic probe (coordinate system the ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus recognizes) with a coordinate system on the living body.